"What's in a name? Naming your boat and basic etiquette

"That which we call a boat by any other name would float just as sweet.”

Should be an easy task, but seafarers even today are a superstitious bunch, you can´t name your boat this or that, you can´t rename your boat, it´s bad luck etc. etc. The common practice you see of breaking a champagne bottle is not only in celebration of the new boat, it´s also traditionally part of the naming ceremony, I won´t go into details, there's a lot of very well written articles on all this stuff, indeed there´s reams dedicated to superstitions of the sea. Today we are going to look a bit at the actual name of the boat and some of the post-naming etiquette.

Where are you navigating?

Why does this have any bearing (nautical pun) on what the name of the boat should be? Well, depending upon where you are in the world and what is the primary language in that area, you might find that your chosen name is difficult to say, spell or maybe offensive.

VHF radio call

Over the years, I honestly must have put more than a thousand names on the sterns of boats, countless registration numbers from various countries and from time to time I have thought to myself, "they're never going to understand that".

Always imagine your boat name being announced on a VHF radio call, you do not want it being confused with anything else, see the first point again too, you do not want to offend people on an open air broadcast.

Don´t be too clever

From time to time a name might be refused, the flagging authority might return your application stating reasons for the denial, it´s been a long time since I have read the small print but there used to be something called "reserved" words or wording, it meant that you could not use certain words at the very beginning of a boat name when registered under a certain flag.

No problem, name is amended on the application, however, when it comes to putting the name of the stern, the owner insists that the reserved words are on display, please do not be that boatowner, there are so many things wrong by doing this;

• The name now does not match the paperwork.

• The name is effectively "illegal" on the stern.

• This is incredibly bad form and just shows lack of character or aspirations to belong to a "set" that clearly with this behavior, never will.

• If you are in the least bit superstitious, this is a huge no-no

Etiquette

A registration number usually accompanies the boat name, the registration number is usually required to be displayed in an easy to see part of the boat, both sides of the bow for example, in a contrasting colour to be easily seen. A town or country of registration is also sometimes required.

Now the nonsense begins because, for whatever reason the boatowner complains about the registration details being visible. I refuse to do anything about it, I can change the letter type, colour and so forth, but I cannot in good faith change the minimum size and location requirements, if they wish to do it, then they can go right ahead. As you can imagine this can cause some friction.

Flags

This is a subject all unto it´s own and can get very complicated. Lets keep it simple. Any vessel requires a minimum of one flag, the country of registration of the boat, this is not the country of residence of the owner, nor the country of passport of the owner, nor the prettiest flag in the chandlers. Coupled to this, some maritime flags are different.

The one case I see incorrect often is the British flag, one of the oldest maritime flags, having been around since the early 18th century. It is often replaced with a Union Jack, although the union Jack appears on an ensign, it is not the correct maritime flag.

Being courteous

If you never navigate outside of the territorial waters of the flagged country of your boat, you will never need another flag. The moment you enter another country's waters you must fly a second flag too, this is the  courtesy flag. Actually I should be more specific, it is not a requirement to fly the courtesy flag, however, flying one indicates abiding by that countries rules and respecting their sovereignty. Not having a courtesy flag or one in very poor condition can cause problems. The courtesy is generally smaller than registration flag and is flown above the registration flag.

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